


Support

by kritter



Category: Detroit: Become Human (Video Game)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-06
Updated: 2019-07-06
Packaged: 2020-06-23 17:12:10
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,039
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19705825
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kritter/pseuds/kritter
Summary: Leo opens up about his drug abuse a bit more to Markus, further connecting their bond, slowly but surely.





	Support

"If you need reasons not to do drugs, then I suppose we should figure out what those are. Right?" Appreciating not being told what to do alongside the fact Markus started double-checking with him with his suggestions made Leo feel much less hostile in the interactions, encouraging him to return the favor by reacting similarly.

"Right," he said with a nod.

Markus considered a statement, but it sounded accusatory when he thought about it and thus shifted it into a question instead.

"Where are you at with your health right now?" Leo's opinion about his mortality used to depend on the time and his mood, but over time he'd learned to take it more seriously and be a bit more careful with himself. Leo thought about the question, scrunching his face with an unintentional glare.

"I can breathe. That's pretty nice," he admitted. Markus chuffed softly.

"That's a start."

"Right. It feels and tastes like shit, but that's the kinda thing you skip over in the moment, you know?" Of course he didn't. _Couldn’t_.

"From what I understand of addiction I'll reiterate what others have said, which is that you do the same thing repeatedly, but expect a different result. The high will always be the same and you won't really feel better, but you think you will at the time, and the pattern doesn't stick." Thinking over what he said, Leo bit his lip, chewing into it in a moment of thought.

"Yeah... yeah. I guess that's just it," he said, pursing his lips before making a loud _pop_ with them, before exhaling.

"I've seen what my lungs look like, man. It's not pretty. They really make it try to sound cool, you know? Inhaling android _blood_ and the pretty color and the party tricks...no wonder I almost died," he revisited, but for once there was no joking tone or clever follow-up to undermine it; a sign he was starting to take his own issues seriously.

"I know it's hard at first, but it'll get easier. You're three months into another try and I've already seen improvement." Leo blinked, glancing up at Markus with a curious stare of disbelief.

"Really?" Markus nodded.

"I keep track. You're swearing less, sleeping more, eating better. Your temper has slowly but surely eased over the months of sobriety, even if we take the overdose into consideration." Remembering that night always darkened the mood between them. Markus remembered the fight, kicking him out and ignoring him, before trying to call him, eventually surrendering and going out himself to look for him, only to find him seizing in the park and immediately calling 911. _Panic_. The heart-wrenching relief when Leo woke up in the hospital bed, still stuttering and disoriented but _alive_.

Leo remembered being angry with his head full of money as soon as he'd 'happened across' the inheritance; he couldn't even pull it out until a year of sobriety and he'd only been a few months in. It was _that_ easy to tip him, and that was the first time he'd seen Markus properly mad-- when Markus finally saw the Leo that Carl dealt with all his life, resurfacing in an instant. The way his personality was glassed over with greed and spite, and suddenly nothing mattered but the money. Frustrated that all their hard work so easily diminished out of Leo's pure selfishness, he'd kicked him out for the night.

Leo recalled the argument and nothing else after until he woke up, picking at his skin and stuttering between bursts of unconsciousness as the nurse would tell him he'd had another partial seizure, a problem he'd never faced until the overdose, and Markus would never forget the blank stare as the man spasmed helplessly in the park, mentally absent while his brain misfired neurons that contorted his body into ugly positions, and before he knew it, he was sobbing, knelt in the snow by his side as he counted the lengthening seconds as one was supposed to with grand mals, one after another, and the paramedics couldn't come fast enough.

Leo would never let go of the image of how he'd never seen Markus look so afraid yet so relieved in one go. How he admitted he was afraid Leo was dead but minutes ago, and any doubt in his mind androids couldn't _feel_ was eradicated, then and there and forever more.

It'd been three months since, but both their wounds were still deep and had a lot of healing to do; but it made Leo finally realize he could never touch the stuff again, for which Markus couldn't help being grateful for.

"It's stupid, you know? Any time I'm mad, or upset, that's what I wanna go to, and it just makes me angrier. It never paid off but I always thought I was right, that I knew everything and was on top of the world, but I was just frying my brain worse than mom's homemade chicken." She never knew to use oil, he mused to himself, considering the fact it might be part of the reason he never ate or had an appetite while growing up with her.

"Do something else. You want to move around more when you're stressed, right?" Leo nodded.

"Exercise is good for that. You like walks. Try when the sun's going down, before you sleep. I think you'd find it relaxing and it's a good way to get fresh air and tire your body out." Markus paused to read the changes of Leo's expressions while he mentally adjusted to the idea.

"I'm stressed out like, all the time. That's the problem," he murmured quietly.

"You're not used to being in a safe, healthy environment. It'll take time for your brain to adjust. It'll be slow, it'll be a while, but you're already working on it."

"I've just done too much harm to myself for too long, man." Markus' gaze turned solemn and sympathetic as he offered a hand, slowly this time and with more distance between them. Leo rolled his eyes, grabbing Markus by the wrist to put his hand on his shoulder, patting himself on the back with it; Markus remained lax, but smiled.

"Yeah, yeah. _Human connection_ and all that."


End file.
